Shield programs protect you when using Wi-Fi

Sunday

Mar 16, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Bob and Joy Schwabach

If you've ever been in an airport or café, you've probably been tempted to use their free Wi-Fi connections. After all, that's what it's there for. This is dangerous without a shield, experts say; it's a perfect situation for identity theft.

In fact, in a large scale study of 340,000 U.S. smartphone users, nearly half use free Wi-Fi connections at least once a month, 40 percent of them use the free access on a daily or weekly basis. About a third used it for online banking or shopping, which requires entering their credit card number. Uh-oh.

The study was conducted by Avast software, a Czech company well known for its free anti-virus software; we used it for years. They just came out with a shield called SecureLine. It's $20 for a year's subscription for iPhone or Android, or you can just use it when you need it for $2.59 a month. It encrypts your data, making it invisible to hackers and snoopers. The first seven days are free and we found it a snap to use.

We focused on Avast simply because we have used them before and been well satisfied, and after all, they did the study. But several software companies make this kind of protective software, which in the trade is known as "Virtual Private Networks." So you're on a public access service — where anyone can tune in — but you can make it private.

Here's a sampling of other privacy providers: Norton HotSpot Privacy sells for $50; VPN Direct is an app for iPhone, starting at 99 cents for one month; Private Internet Access is $40 a year.

STREAMING TV

Why, asked a reader, do we have Google TV when we could have Roku to bring in channels like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon?

We used to have a Roku player when they first came out, but switched to Google TV later because … experimenting is what we do. But if we were buying now we'd probably go with the new Roku Streaming Stick. That's when it's available: It's due to start shipping in mid-April.

The Streaming Stick will be $50 and will bring in Netflix, Hulu and more than a thousand channels. It comes with a remote control, or you can use your smartphone to change channels. It will also let you send photos, music and videos from your phone to your TV.

The chief rival to Roku is Google's $35 Chromecast. It doesn't come with a remote, so you have to use a smartphone or tablet to change channels. That won't bother most smartphone owners, but Roku has more content, including more than 31,000 movies.

If you hate tiny keyboards (and Bob does), another way to control the Roku stick is with Logitech's new Harmony Smart Keyboard. It works as a universal remote control with the Roku, Apple TV and Xbox One. It's $150 from Best Buy. (What the heck, it's only money.)

INTERNUTS

•SlightlyWarped.com is a door into a fascinating trove of trivia, but unfortunately it is so junked up to look cool that it's almost impossible to get to the best stuff. Better to do a Web search on "Slightly Warped Curiosity." Then you get to select from their main categories, which on the website itself are lost in the whiplash of competing graphics.

In Photos, check out Hillary Clinton as she looked back in her "babe" phase; then a young Russian woman who flew 980 night bombing raids in World War II; or Snow White in the employee cafeteria line at Disneyland. In the maps section (Bob's favorite), find out what the Chinese names for European countries mean in English. (England's Chinese name, for example, means "Braveland." Italy means "Big Profit.")

•"List of books by..." Put in an author's name after "list of books by" and Google shows a row of books by that author, complete with their colorful book jackets. Underneath each one are links to reviews and places to buy. When Bob typed "list of books by Jack Vance," there were some he'd never heard of, and he's a real fan.

Search "list of albums by …" and you get the list of the artist's albums and the jacket art. (Album art is itself an interesting and collectible category.)

AIR SHOT

AirHelp.com will sue the airline for you if you get bumped without proper compensation and they overbooked the flight (which is common). Awards for this in the U.S. can go as high as $1,300. You pay nothing and they get 25 percent of whatever you receive.

BOOKS

"Learn to Program with Scratch," by Majed Marji, $35 from NoStarch.com.

You would think they got the title wrong and it should be "from Scratch," but no, they got it right, because "Scratch" is a programming language. It uses colorful blocks and cartoon characters instead of typed commands. The language started out as a learning tool for kids, but this book is aimed at teens to adults. You can create games, animation, science simulations and tutorials.

Let's face it. It's more fun to learn by dragging and dropping blocks than trying to get every code symbol in the right place; you won't be tearing your hair out at 3 a.m. trying to find the one tiny error that ruined your program. "Learn to Program with Scratch" aims to teach you the fundamentals so you'll be inspired to go on to the tougher stuff some day. The author is a senior engineer at General Motors and writes well. Surprisingly, this book is easier to follow than the Scratch book aimed at kids.

According to Code.org, jobs for programmers are among the highest paying, but fewer than 3 percent of college students major in computer science. And according to the Department of Labor, job opportunities in this field are expect to grow at a rate of 20 percent a year.

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